Scott Culpepper

"Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, Let Newton be! And all was light.” Alexander Pope’s epitaph for the renowned English philosopher and mathematician did not make it to his tomb in Westminster Abbey. Maybe the powers…

Private Hugh White stamped his feet and rubbed his hands together to warm them in the blistering cold of a March evening in Boston. Snow blanketed the ground around the Custom House he was tasked to guard. Royal revenue collected…

As a high school junior, I read an eccentric text with unexpected results. I’ve always had a taste for the macabre in history, literature, and culture. Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories fired my enthusiasm for reading. The horrendous case…

They stole like ravenous wolves into Canterbury Cathedral in the thickening dusk of December 29, 1170. Intent on bathing the sanctified space in blood, five English knights invaded this sanctuary that was dedicated to uniting God and humanity. Their target,…

I call it correction fatigue. Correction fatigue strikes when you are in the middle of grading students’ papers and you come to a paper that is filled with errors. The grammar and style are so bad that the intended meanings…

Let’s Just Stop Calling It Christianity by Scott Culpepper I experimented with chemistry in junior high. Not so much in the classroom as in the lunchroom. We did engage in a little curricular chemistry in class, though not nearly as…

By Scott Culpepper I remember sitting in a seminary class in 1997 discussing revivalism. One of my fellow students fancied himself a bit of a comedian and excelled at impersonations. Assuming his best Billy Graham voice, he intoned with great…

by Scott Culpepper Arthur Conan Doyle was done. In December 1893, he finally disposed of the burden that had dogged him since 1888. Ironically, that perceived burden was also the means of his economic success and growing fame. Sherlock Holmes…

by Scott Culpepper On the morning of May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn lost her head. Literally! Convicted of treason and adultery, Anne was sentenced to death by beheading. The execution had been delayed to accommodate the arrival of the executioner,…